The Renewable Energy Market
Harnessing the power of the wind and the sun.
Investment in the renewable energy market is rising rapidly. A report in 2007 from Solarbuzz, a Solar Energy consultancy, states that the photovoltaic (PV) industry generated $17.2 billion in global revenues in 2007.
Worldwide solar installations have a reached a high of 2,826MW, representing a 62% growth over 2006.
As far as wind power is concerned, in 2007, the U.S. wind energy industry installed 5,244 megawatts (MW), expanding the nation’s total wind power Generating Capacity by 45% over 2006 and injecting an investment of over $9 billion into the economy.
It is not unlikely that the U.S. will see an increase of 16,000 wind turbines per year with a value of approximately $22 billion.
applications... for example; fuel additives
Diesel manufacturers in Europe and Japan are concerned with NOx emissions from diesel trucks and cars. A new fuel additive – ammonium formate – shows great promise and is being tested. It is likely to be adopted and would be a large market worldwide.
The ERC process can be adapted to produce ammonium formate
The market for formic acid in steel making
ERC’s primary purpose is to convert CO2, a waste product of burning fossil fuels and an environmental problem, into a valuable product, formic acid. But if the ERC process is both economic and successful it is likely to be widely accepted as a way for industry to deal with exhaust gas from power production; there then arises the danger of overproduction of formic acid, that is, in excess of market demand. This would limit the value of the product and might act as a barrier to the wider spread of an otherwise valuable technology. So it is useful to anticipate the issue and look beyond the current market to ask if there are future applications that can take up a much larger volume of formic acid. This question quickly becomes: can the strongest of the organic acids (formic acid) replace the use of strong acids like hydrochloric (HCl acid) and sulfuric. Formic acid is much more environmental friendly.
The market discovered:
On MVTG investigation, there is an application in hot-rolled steel pickling (cleaning the oxidized surface of hot-rolled steel during the manufacturing process in a steel plant), this is one of the largest uses today of HCl acid 2. Formic acid can directly replace hydrochloric acid in the steel pickling process and pulp and paper industry. The market for hydrochloric acid is in the hundreds of millions of tons annually. Formic acid is potentially more attractive in this application than HCl because:
1. It gives a better surface quality (HCl is an aggressive acid and can pit the steel)
2. Less iron is lost from the steel surface
3. Less rinse water is needed after pickling
4. A caustic rinse is necessary to neutralize the HCl; no neutralizing rinse is required with formic acid
5. Corrosion inhibitors are not required to reduce the amount of steel etching
6. HCl is so aggressive that plant equipment gets corroded quickly; formic acid results in a longer plant life
7. Formic acid is bio-degradable
8. Formic acid can be reconcentrated and reused from the aqueous spent solution, not HCl
9. Precipitated iron formate can be recycled back into the blast furnace to recover iron that was lost
10. Process water can be recycled more easily.
ERC also produces O2 as a byproduct: the oxygen goes to the blast furnace where it will improve combustion. There are other large scale industrial applications of formic acid that are being considered and investigated by Mantra.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... other publicly traded companies involved in clean fuel technologies ...
Clean Diesel Techs Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTI) - Clean Coal Technology Inc., (PK: CCTC)
INNOSPEC Inc. (NASDAQ: IOSP) - Johnson Matthey PLC Inc. (PK: JMPLY)
Lubrizol Inc. (NYSE: LZ) - DOW Chemical Inc. (NYSE: DOW)
Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX) - EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD)
Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AVR) - Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX)
Clean Energy Fuels Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNE) - Verenium Corporation (Nasdaq: VRNM)
